The movie dramatizes the predicament of seventeen-year-old Valerie, who symbolizes thousands of girls who each year sell their bodies just to survive. Shot entirely on location in Hollywood and other Los Angeles neighborhoods, the film uses a minimalist handheld style to evoke its gritty realism and draw attention to the characters’ emotions.

“It was a passion project,” Beatty says. “I had no money and minimal help, so I knew it would be an exhausting and difficult endeavor, but I wanted my first movie to have impact and relevance.” With a budget of only $1700 and a skeleton crew, Beatty was also required by the film school course to wear most of the major hats: writer, director, producer, cinematographer, camera operator, and all post-production work, save for the music.

Ms. Beatty was gratified that her debut film was made an official selection of the dramatic shorts program of the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival (HRIFF) in late February 2018, playing alongside films with ten to twenty times the budget and crew. “I was a bit nervous, sitting there in the Regal Theaters cinema and worried if the quality would be good enough. I was gratified to see how well it held up, even next to much more expensive productions.”

HRIFF isn’t necessarily the end of “Valerie,” which is still in consideration at several other established film festivals. “Nobody directly makes money off short subjects, but it’s an opportunity to show other people what you can do,” Beatty explained. “There have been filmmakers who’ve launched their careers based on one promising short. I’m hoping that my Valerie does that for me.”

At the very least, “Valerie” earned Christine an “A” in her final film school course at Los Angeles Valley College, and several months later she graduated cum laude. In the meantime she continues her screenplay and book writing as she gears up for her next film project.

About Christine D. Beatty
Christine D. Beatty is a transgender woman who climbed her way out of a world of addiction and prostitution. In that world, she met many fellow sexworkers who’d been driven from abusive homes as children–youngsters who turned to prostitution to survive.

Two decades later she volunteered at the Los Angeles youth shelter Children of the Night. For several years she took other clean and sober women into the shelter so they could share their experience, strength and hope with the teenage girls and boys rescued from prostitution.

As a published writer and Cinema Arts graduate from LA Valley College, Christine intends to make films that entertain as well as enlighten. Film can have impact without becoming “Western Union” or or a pulpit.

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